Jonah Goldberg commentary: Hillary Clinton is popular, but what has she done?

Also in Opinion

Subscribe to The Dispatch

Already a subscriber?
Enroll in EZPay and get a free gift!
Enroll now.

Monday August 5, 2013 6:06 AM

“I think she’s one of the most fascinating women of our time and this world,” confessed Bob
Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC, as part of his announcement that his network is making a
miniseries about Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with Diane Lane in the starring
role.

Words are funny things. For instance, G.K. Chesterton once remarked that that the word
good has many uses: “For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of 500
yards, I should call him a good shot but not necessarily a good man.”

So it is, I suppose, with the word
fascinating. Given the perpetual soap opera revolving around the Clintons, I can
understand the fascination with Mrs. Clinton. But while a soap opera can make for a compelling
spectacle, that doesn’t mean every character in it is compelling in his or her own right.

Quick: Can you think of a single truly interesting thing Hillary Clinton has ever said?

Before you answer, let me narrow the terms. Wildly implausible statements about how she parlayed
pocket change into $100,000 in the commodities markets simply by reading
The Wall Street Journal don’t count. Neither do her explanations of how her Whitewater
billing records miraculously appeared out of thin air in the most secure building in America. Nor
do her explanations of how and why she stuck by her husband.

What I mean is: Have you ever heard her speak, as a politician in her own right, and been wowed
by her eloquence or floored by her insights or even particularly impressed by her raw political
skill?

I’m hard-pressed to think of any examples. I suppose her famous dismissal of any interest in
how, on her watch, four Americans were murdered by terrorists — “What difference, at this point,
does it make?!” — could count as fascinating in its brazen indifference and staggering cynicism.
But c’mon.

The simple fact, by my lights at least, is that Hillary Clinton is not a compelling personality
in her own right. Even Bill Clinton’s harshest critics have to concede that he was a masterful
politician, a jazz impresario mixing deep insights, policy minutiae and folksy cornpone peppered
with compelling half-truths and daring outright lies. Barack Obama isn’t nearly as gifted as Bill
was on the stump or in the backrooms, but the man has political talent. Hillary’s a very solid
policy wonk, but the only thing that makes her a rock star is that people keep calling her one.

The same goes for her career. Quick: What has the woman done? As a lawyer, what important cases
did she win? As a first lady, her only major “accomplishment” was a failed health-care-reform
scheme that didn’t even get a vote in the Senate. As a carpetbagging senator from New York, what
historic legislation did she shepherd? Most of her party, including the president, repudiates her
vote for the Iraq war. Pretty much the only thing her biggest supporters can tout about her tenure
as secretary of state is that she “travelled a million miles,” which strikes me as the ultimate
triumph of quantity over quality (particularly given the hot mess that is American foreign
policy).

In other words, what fascinates me is the fascination with Hillary. I don’t deny that it exists,
I just don’t think she warrants it. Also, I don’t think finding Hillary Clinton deeply interesting
necessarily means there’s a deep interest out there in the American public to see her become
president. Huma Abedin, the humiliated wife of Anthony Weiner, is interesting for many of the same
reasons Hillary is; that doesn’t add to Abedin’s qualifications for high office.

And this is one reason why I think all of the talk about Hilary’s “inevitability” is misplaced.
Yes, she’s way ahead in the polls. But she’s also been out of the line of fire in domestic partisan
politics for a long time. That softens people’s attitudes until they are given a reason to change
them. (George W. Bush’s popularity has gone up markedly for similar reasons.) When the Benghazi
scandal was in the news, her favorability dropped. You can be sure it’ll happen again if she runs
and stakes out positions.

Sure, the smart money is on her to win the Democratic nomination if she runs. But, then again,
the same smart money went to Clinton in 2008. Clinton lost to Obama for several reasons, some of
them tactical. But trumping all of the others was that Obama was a more compelling candidate.